To: joe who wrote (20460 ) 8/12/1998 2:20:00 PM From: Doughboy Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Uh, okay, now you're comparing NICs and modems to Windows 95. Last I checked, Windows wasn't a commodity, it was a monopoly. A commodity is a product that has a perfect substitute and the sole criterion for purchase is price. As I understand it, 3COM has several NIC competitors, not the least of which is Intel. NICs are sold primarily on the basis of price, and 3COM holds the majority share of the market because it is the most competitively priced. Further exacerbating commoditization of NICs is the fact that there is an oligopsony in the purchasers of NICs (ie, concentration of purchasing power among box-makers); this prevents 3COM from installing too much intelligence in NICs that box-makers don't want. In other words, 3COM's strategy to control the standards at the edge of the network is going to boomerang because box-makers will simply walk away from 3COM if 3COM tries to leverage its standard to gain higher profit margins.
